Enter the Dragon: Astronauts Open Freighter Hatch

Posted
by
Doug Messier
on May 26, 2012, at 8:23 am
in News
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Comments: 5 responses
5 Comments

Astronauts inside the Dragon. (Credit: SpaceX)

MISSION UPDATE VIA SPACEX

This morning, at 2:53 AM Pacific/5:53 AM Eastern, NASA astronauts stationed on board the International Space Station opened the hatch to SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft.

Astronaut Don Pettit opened the hatch and he and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Station Commander, entered the Dragon for initial inspections. They were joined at the entrance of the hatch by ESA astronaut Andre Kuipers and Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka.

Don Pettit opens the Dragon hatch. (Credit: SpaceX)

The operation went smoothly and ahead of schedule.  Dragon’s interior looked good and Pettit remarked on the vehicle’s new car smell.

SpaceX engineers in Hawthorne, CA are putting Dragon into its final configuration for the duration of its visit to the station.  Now the astronauts will get to work unloading the more than 1,000 pounds of cargo before refilling the vehicle with more than 1,400 pounds of cargo that will make the trip home.

Inside the Dragon. (Credit: SpaceX)

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  • David Bigsbee

    Can we flip Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan the bird yet?

  • http://eye-on-space.blogspot.com Kaizad Raimalwala

    I like the Bruce Lee reference

  • Paul451

    Pettit is very whimsical. I assume the “new car smell” comment was a joke?

    Doug, doesn’t this occasion deserve a new ParabolicPoll?

    (Perhaps “How much would/could you pay to spend a week in space? $1000, $10,000, $100,000… etc.”)

  • fred

    “Can we flip Neil Armstrong and Gene Cernan the bird yet?”

    oh did everyone already do that? i have been flipping them the bird for a long time now…. but i am not part of the moon astronaut group so congress does not care about me.

  • Warshawski

    This is a great achievement by SpaceX and NASA, this is also effectivly a demo flight for Dragon Rider and the basic spacecraft is the same. I logicly Congress should see the sccess of the Comercial model and fully fund Comercial Crew. Unfortunately some in Congress will still favour the cost plus pork of SLS and try to cut COmercial Crew funding.
    SpaceX has proven its safety first approach I would be more confident in flying with SpaceX than the traditional NASA approach which resulted in Challenger and Columbia disasters.